


Debellatio

by kewltie



Category: K-pop, Super Junior
Genre: 24/7 D/s, Age Difference, BDSM, Cage, Contract relationship, Developing Relationship, Erotica, Kink Exploration, M/M, Pet Play, Power Dynamic, Total Power Exchange
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-06 04:42:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12809859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kewltie/pseuds/kewltie
Summary: debellatio | noun | de·bel·la·tio | \ ˌdābəˈlätēˌō \ | : complete subjugation of a belligerent nation usually involving loss of sovereignty; the act of conquering or subduing.





	1. Free like Caged Birds I

**Author's Note:**

> this entire verse is dedicated to all my fav kinks. told in non-chronological order.

  
"You should get a cage," Donghae says casually, turning the next page of his assigned reading of _Freakonomics._

Hyukjae had given him the book nearly two weeks ago and Donghae had procrastinated on reading it until now because--well it was _reading_. Donghae got enough of that in school thanks so why would Hyukjae torture him even more so at home but Hyukjae said it was meant to broaden his horizon, whatever that meant. 

Donghae had resisted it at first, he really did. He left the book around the house, hoping he could accidentally ‘lose’ it so Hyukjae wouldn’t scold him, but the servants keep finding it in odd places like near the pool, under the bed of one of the many guest rooms that littered in the house, and one time on top of the large oak tree’s branch situated in the back yard (how did they even find it when the back yard is practically a forest?!). When that didn’t work, Donghae pretended to read it while he was relaxing on a float bed and oops he just dropped the book in the pool.

He brought the wet-ink-stained book to Hyukjae’s attention with an apologetic (fake, totaly fake) expression on his face and Hyukjae barely even blink at it as he took the book from Donghae and said that, “it was okay,” and, “you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to, I just thought you would like it because the book has some really interesting thing in it that might peak your interest.”

After that conversation, it left Donghae feeling empty and wrecked with guilt because Hyukjae gave him the book with Donghae’s interest in his mind and this is his response to it. What made it even worst was that ever since Hyukjae had given him the book, he never once nag at Donghae to read it or berate him for the mistreatment of his book (which he found out later, much to his dismay and horror, that it was an autographed copy by two of the authors). He left it all up to Donghae to decide what to do with it and Donghae felt so ungrateful and dumb with what he had done that he wanted to make it up to Hyukjae.

He approached Hyukjae later over dinner, fidgeting the entire time and an apology on his tongue. It didn’t take long for Hyukjae to notice that Donghae wasn’t even paying a smidgen of attention to what he was saying and wow, that made Donghae feel even more terrible. In the end, he got out his apology and asked, almost hesitantly, if Hyukjae could give him another copy of _Freakonomics_ and Hyukjae had smiled, so happy and pleased with him, that Donghae had to turned away before he does something reckless like put his head in Hyukjae’s lap so he can be pet.

"Hmm," Hyukjae annoyingly responses in return and Donghae’s face scrunches up in displeasure.

He has to bite back a scathing remark and several swear words, because Donghae isn’t stupid enough to get spank this late at night. Hyukjae may have the patience of a saint when it come to Donghae but he can be annoying picky about certain things like not wanting Donghae to curse, believing dirty words like that shouldn’t come out of such a lovely mouth, and his punishment for a misbehavior like that is a paddle to Donghae’s ass. Donghae likes his pain okay but he isn’t exactly a pain slut and there’s only so much Donghae could take before he’s writhing helplessly over Hyukjae’s lap begging for forgiveness. 

Donghae shuts his book loudly and crawls his way toward the nightstand next to the headboard, the bedding is soft and airy beneath him, molding to the impression of his hands and knees as they digs into the fabric (Donghae hates how soft the beds in Hyukjae’s home are, it makes him want to stay in bed all day and not do anything, not very conductive to his studying let's be honest). He places the book on the nightstand and rolls over onto his ass, his back leaning against a pillow, pressing into the headboard. He grabs another pillow next to him and wraps his arms around it, sitting there fuming furiously.

He waits for Hyukjae to say anything more but all he could hear are the shuffling of Hyukjae’s papers and click-clack of his fingers pressing down on his laptop's keyboard. Donghae chews on his lower lip unhappily and lets out a loud sigh.

"A large one, with iron bars, kind of like a birdcage," he continues with the one-sided conversation sourly, trying not to sound like he hadn’t thought about this a lot.

Nope. Nuh-uh. Okay, maybe just a little and that’s only because of their last visit to Gommarah, where there was a demonstration with a sub behind a set of bars and his domme outside hand-feeding him grapes as he fucked himself on a dildo.

Donghae was more interest in the cage itself than the scene played out in it and the entire time in the club, Donghae’s eyes keep dragging themselves over to the cage until Hyukjae had leaned closely in, his breath warm and familiar against Donghae’s, and whispered in his ears, telling him to go up there if he was really that keen on it. Donghae had mumbled a thank you before he all but run up to the stage where the cage was and climbed in.

There were soft bedding on the bottom of the cage and the cage was large enough for him to roll around it and stand up to--well perform in front of everyone, his feet and hip moving to the beat set in his head and Donghae was grateful for the belly-dancing lesson Hyukjae had him take when Donghae casually mention he like to dance sometimes, because Donghae adored the attention on him but at that moment he really only wanted one person to look at him.

He didn’t even have to turn to look at the private corner where he had vacated to feel Hyukjae’s heated gaze directed his way and he hoped Hyukjae know that this was all for Hyukjae and that this cage kept everyone out and away from Donghae, that no matter how much they may want him, they can’t touch him but if Hyukjae wish so he can do just about anything because Donghae is his.

That thought had burned into his mind for days and he really, really wanted it. Enough that he is bringing it up to Hyukjae right now.  
   
"And what would I do with it?" Hyukjae asks, and Donghae quickly glances over to the corner where Hyukjae’s large desk commandeer the area and sees that Hyukjae is still on his laptop, a stack of paper on the side and large manila folder on the other. Not once is there a moment of pause between his work and his conversation with Donghae, which makes him a little bitter. 

He tries not to anyway, because he knows how important Hyukjae’s job is and is not Hyukjae’s fault that Donghae isn’t as interesting as his stupid job but it doesn’t stop him from feeling jealous and resentful. Jealous and resentful of everything and anything that take Hyukjae’s attention away from him.

Donghae turns away and focuses back to their conversation at hand. "Put me in it, of course," he says, rolling his eyes because honestly what did Hyukjae think Donghae would want it for.

And there’s a brief, just a second pause in his typing that if Donghae wasn’t so in tune to Hyukjae’s--well everything, he wouldn’t have notice it but Donghae knows he got Hyukjae’s interest now. "Why would I?" Hyukjae asks and Donghae curls himself into his pillow happily, trying to keep the stupid grin off his face.

"Because you want to keep me safe and tuck me someplace where you would always find me but mostly--," he stops to lower his voice in a sultry tone, "mostly you don't want to have to share me with the rest of the world." He immediately turns look at Hyukjae and lets the grin slip through his defenses when he sees Hyukjae had his chair swirled around to Donghae.

"Oh," Hyukjae says amused, closing his laptop and finally, finally turning his attention to Donghae, "is that how it is?"

"Yes." Donghae smiles, falling forward onto the bed, face first, and stretching his body out onto the luxurious bed that easily eclipsed Donghae’s old shabby bed in his former apartment. Even the smell of the bedding is lovely and sweet, reminding him of a summer breeze and letting the wealth and power Hyukjae wields washing over him.

He rolls onto his back and glances up at the intricate mural that decorated Hyukjae’s bedroom ceiling, a replica of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel “the Creation of Adam”, and thinks of God giving life to Adam, the same way that Hyukjae’s touch ignite something deep and desperate in him, making him feel alive and floating on a perpetual cloud nine but just as he can bring Donghae up, he could also bring him crashing down with a few carefully selected words.

To give someone that much power over him is a frightening thing but it’s also so thrilling and humble because without a simple thing as trust, everything could fall apart and Donghae gave up everything to Hyukjae, trusting him to not abuse it. Hyukjae embraced it, taking his all and leaving him nothing but what Hyukjae can give him back in return. That sort of thing is just what Donghae craves and needs like air but he can never forget that it is a temporary thing and that it is convenience. 

So he doesn’t know what make him say it but his lips move almost thoughtlessly, "because I'm your most precious treasure."

Donghae immediately freezes as soon as the words came out of his mouth. He’s completely horrified at what he’d said and wishes with desperation to take it all back, to rewind time and pretends this didn’t just happen.

He cautiously glances to the side and sees Hyukjae, with his elbow resting on the arm of his chair and his chin placed on his knuckles, he looks thoughtful and for a moment Donghae is afraid Hyukjae would deny it, which would be humiliating and Donghae would have to kill himself to save the himself from the shame. He holds his breath and waits for a response and hopes he didn’t set himself for an epic embarrassment because he knows Hyukjae has been very kind to him and even if he let Donghae down easily it wouldn’t change the fact that Donghae was _rejected_.

Hyukjae’s lips twitch and then it curls up into a small smile. "That's true," Hyukjae concedes, eyes bright and gentle.

And with that Donghae could breath again, letting out loud gust of air and reaching a hand up to pull at the black thick leather band around his neck, feeling constricting and hot all of a sudden. His cheek burns and his hands are little shaky but elation curls in the pit of stomach and he tightly grips his collar, a firm reminder that even if Hyukjae didn’t mean it so Donghae is still bound to him.

When they first started their relationship, Donghae had assumed Hyukjae was one of those doms that like to accessorized their subs in decorated collar to show off but instead of choosing something gaudy and stupidly expensive, Hyukjae went for something more simple and comfortable to put on Donghae's neck.

And once they into Hyukjae's car, Donghae had let curiosity got the better of him and asked why he chose this type of collar when Donghae know perfectly that Hyukjae could afford practically every single items in that private high-end toy shop.

Hyukjae had glanced up from his phone and said unabashedly, "I don't want some piece of jewelry to take away from your natural beauty. When we go out I want all eyes on you and not your collar."

Donghae felt his cheek grow hot and he abruptly turned away so Hyukjae could not see it.

"But it'll be reinforced with steel instead and I want cushions placed on the bottom of the cage because you bruised too easily and if there's going to be a bruise on you, I rather be the one who personally leave it on you,” Hyukjae continues, when Donghae still couldn’t find his voice.

Donghae shudders at the thought, he loves bruises, particularly when they are left by Hyukjae and even when days pass by they’re still there and Donghae could easily look it and be reminded of Hyukjae’s fingers on him, digging into his flesh, especially when Donghae leave for school and doesn’t have his collar on him.

“And pillows,” Donghae adds in, because that is very important.

Hyukjae raises an eyebrow. "You want to sleep in there?"

"Only when I'm being bad and you have to punish me," Donghae says, shooting Hyukjae a bright grin and lacing his fingers together, already getting excited by the idea of it.

"Oh so you plan to misbehave even more so in the future, huh,” Hyukjae replies, leaning into his chair and looking at Donghae’s prone position, Donghae could feels Hyukjae taking in every inch of him.

Donghae couldn’t resist stretching himself out a little, pulling up his night shirt to reveal a stretch of skin that may lure Hyukjae to the bed. But Hyukjae remains perfectly still, except for the tap of his fingers against the arm of his chair that hint any sign of Hyukjae being disturb by Donghae.

Donghae grumply turns around, Hyukjae control is iron-clad and that always irks him how Donghae easily fall apart when it come to Hyukjae but Hyukjae can be so firm and composed when it’s Donghae. "That's because you don't give me enough attention lately," he says and couldn't keep the sulk out of his voice.

There's a pause and fuck, fuck, his tongue is loose tonight. Goddamnit, he thinks.  Donghae grabs a pillow and puts it over his face, burying himself in it and silently screaming into it. Stupid, stupid, so incredibly stupid, Donghae says to himself furiously, you are Hyukjae's but Hyukjae is not yours, not in the way that matter anyway.

“Tuesday, I'll have my afternoon clear so when you get out of your class we’ll go shopping at Hangeng’s place for a cage.”

Donghae immediately perks up, throwing the pillow aside. “Really?” he demands excitedly looking at Hyukjae.

“Yes.” Hyukjae smiles, and it’s one of those big bright smile that continues to take Donghae’s breath away. 

“No lie? You can’t take it back now that you brought it up or I’ll be very very sad,” Donghae says, not quite exaggerating at all. 

Hyukjae laughs and immediately that sound rings through Donghae’s entire body and it’s so lovely and sweet. Donghae wants to make Hyukjae laugh all the time. The world needs Hyukjae’s laugh, he thinks deliriously. 

Hyukjae stands up and stretches himself out before, walking toward Donghae’s laying serenely on the bed. He bends down to kisses the top of Donghae’s head and when he pulls back, he says, “No, I would be very very mad at myself it if I make you sad.”

Donghae’s covers his face in embarrassment at hearing his words being thrown back at him but he’s so happy, Hyukjae makes him so happy. It’s so unfair that Hyukjae always know what to do and say to make Donghae turns to a puddle of goo and Donghae still can’t read Hyukjae’s the same way Hyukjae could read him like an open book. But Donghae could do this though to even the field.

Donghae leans up and grabs hold of Hyukjae’s tie and yanks him down for a kiss, a real kiss this time, not one of those chaste kiss Hyukjae loves to give him... not that Donghae doesn’t like it too but it took him a really long time to learn that it was okay to kiss Hyukjae whenever he wanted so he’s abusing it as much as possible now.

Hyukjae isn’t one of those doms that pretty much oozes dominance out of his pores at every turn because somehow people get that image that a dom is suppose to be this powerful strong harden person that make you want to bend your knee all the damn time, well Donghae doesn’t need that or want such thing. All that he knows is that Hyukjae is the only dom in a very long list of doms that make Donghae happily bare his neck to him and willingly get on his knee and crawl. Hyukjae’s dominance is subtle and firm and completely dangerous, and Donghae jealously guards it as if he has claim on it (on one occasion he nearly bit a submissive girl who wanted to scene with Hyukjae and got a well-deserved flogging for it, which he'd delighted in). 

So, when they kiss, Hyukjae always takes control of it, setting the pace and the rhythm, only letting Donghae come up for air when he feels like it and only here where Hyukjae’s tightly woven control falls apart under Donghae’s skillful tongue. He could feel the press of Hyukjae fingers gripping his hair and pressing Donghae deeper into the kiss and when Donghae’s tongue retreats back to cavern of his mouth, Hyukjae quickly gives chase and grips Donghae’s hair tightly in warning, and Donghae smiles into the kiss.

Like everything he does, Hyukjae gives his all into the kiss and Hyukjae kiss like he wants to devour him and Donghae earnestly hopes he would do so. 

Hyukjae pulls them abruptly pull them apart leaving Donghae to gasps for air, while Hyukjae looks perfectly fine, the beautiful bastard.

“Okay, okay,” Donghae says, panting a little. “I trust you.” And that’s the problem, Donghae trust Hyukjae so completely and irreversibly that it makes him so afraid that when this end Donghae wouldn’t know what to do without Hyukjae.

 

\---

  
Four hundred and six days left till their contract expire.


	2. Free like Caged Birds

It arrives three weeks later as Donghae is lounging in the sunroom with an open textbook of Organic Chemistry laying out in front of him, staring down at it in vivid horror.     
  
Words like “chirality”, “the R,S system”, and “meso compounds” are zooming past him at light speed and though he knows they mean something, something important possibly, and if he bother to look back at his notes he’ll probably understand it again, but it right now they feel too much like an alien language to him, speaking in a foreign and strange code from a galaxy far, far away.  
  
Donghae blows a frustrated huff of air and pushes his note aside before planting his face right into the textbook with a defeated groan. If only he can just suck up the information like some form of osmosis, or maybe even better if he was a sponge then this wouldn’t have been such a painful experience; and clearly somewhere between the second and third hour of studying he had lost his mind.  
  
Three hours of full on studying can fry anyone brain and Donghae’s brain is currently a scramble mess.   
  
“It’s useless,” he says, rolling onto his back and using the textbook as pillow, a pillow made of brick that is, but still.  
  
He looks up at the expansive glass roof of the sunroom, where the sunlight hits the glass in all the right way that the room is bright and airy as if this entire room is the favored by the heaven—like the way the room just soaked up all the sunlight and appear to glow vibrantly in the day and at night the darkness descends and blanket it with thousands of dotted little lights and how it’s always warm and cozy despite the changing season and Donghae just loves it so much.    
  
The window seat particularly, pressed up against the side of the sunroom and protruding outward into the main courtyard of the manor where he can easily view the carefully tended garden, is his own private little nook and his favorite area to study and lay uselessly around.  
  
Hyukjae once said that he’s like a cat when he caught Donghae all splayed out across the bench cushion, bathing under the sunlight one day but Donghae disagrees. He thinks he’s more of dog than anything: hopelessly clingy, constantly seeking the attention and affirmation of affection from his master, and stubborn to the point of stupid.  
  
Donghae is Hyukjae’s dog and the collar around his neck is the proof of it.  
  
In some way that simple fact doesn’t bother him as much as it used to be, he thinks as he languidly soaks up the mid afternoon sun and shut his eyes, because even dogs can be treated with the gentlest warmth and if that’s what it takes for Hyukjae to glance his way, then so be it.  
  
He’ll wear his collar like a crown as Hyukjae is the unconquerable territory lay before him.  
  
What Donghae would give to seized this man for himself, he thinks, raising his hands just over his head and his fingers spreading out for the glare of the sunlight cut through the space between them in a more manageable manner as he open his eyes and stares through the gap to look at the sun hovering above him.  
  
He raise his hands higher and makes a grabbing motion with them as though he can snatch the sun for himself and then catches himself before he does something even more embarrassing. He abruptly drop his hands to his side and let out a strangle moan.  “Stupid, stupid,” Donghae mumbles to himself.  
  
Donghae sighs and puts one arm over his eyes, wishing Hyukjae was here right now so he can stop embarrassing himself with this heedless longing.  
  
If Hyukjae was here, Donghae would tucked up against his side and Hyukjae would read while Donghae’s eyes would flutter shut to Hyukjae’s fingers combing through his hair in a wordless lullaby.  
  
It would be good, it would be perfect and Donghae can almost just let himself drown in this dream but he unexpectedly hear footsteps coming nearer, that draws his attention away. He drags himself upward in one slow motion.  
  
"Donghae, it's here," says Taerin, suddenly appearing at the doorway that connects the sunroom to the manor’s main library.  
  
“Oh,” says Donghae, perking up immediately at any excuse that will distract him from his study and errant mood but then he pauses, confused. “Wait, what is here?”  
  
Taerin’s face is carefully blank but the slight quirk of her left brow gives every indication she’s not one bit impressed with him. “The item you and Master Hyukjae had specifically ordered from Han’s Devilish Delights.”  
  
Donghae scrambles off of the bench, nearly tripping over his own two feet, and hurriedly rushes over to her. “Where?” he demands, brimming with untold anticipation.   
  
“They’re just finished unloading the item from the truck and should be in the foyer soon,” she says.  
  
Donghae quickly takes her hand and off they go before Taerin can say anything more. He and Taerin hurries to the foyer, though it’s mostly Donghae dragging Taerin to his rapid and excited pace, and through the winding hallways of the manor.  
  
Once they reach the entryway, where the double grand staircase majestically ascends into the 2nd floor atrium like two branches of a tree and greet visitor into the atrium of the manor, Donghae stands at the base of one and leans against the railing just as several people in blue jumpers push and pull along a large trolley cart with a massive sheet covered shaped object into the manor. He spots Suijin ahead of the pack, carefully laying out directions to the delivery workers and guiding them into the entryway.  
  
When they are just about to bypass him, one of the workers give him a barely there nod of notice before focusing back on moving the cart along, not even a notable pause in his work to give attention to the black leather collar around Donghae’s neck which doesn’t come a surprise to Donghae. Discretion is all part of the job for anyone associated in their kind of lifestyle.   
  
A bared footed person with a collar on is definitely not the weirdest thing they have witness, Donghae thinks as the group pass under the landing of the double grand staircase and proceeds into the foyer, with Suijin leading them directly toward the private elevator to the left of the foyer.   
  
"Where are they taking it?" he asks, curious. He leans forward to get a closer look at the crew as they reluctantly dragged his item into the elevator and Sujin telling the crew not to worry about it, because the elevator can handle the heavy load.  
  
"Master Hyukjae's office," Taerin answers beside him.  
  
Donghae blinks, turning back to her as his eyes widen in surprised. "The office, really?" he asks, unsure if he heard that right. “I thought it would be in the sunroom or perhaps even in grand salon.”  
  
“Master Hyukjae specifically told us to place the cage in his office,” she states with the smallest amount of shrug.   
  
Donghae’s open his mouth but pauses and tilts his head thoughtfully before closing it.  
  
Hyukjae’s office is up on the second floor and directly link to the master bedroom, it’s where he does all his work and the room he spend the most time in more than anything; however, It’s more like his own personal library than anything with walls upon walls of book and Donghae rarely enter it. He understands what it mean for Hyukjae to have his own private space that isn't constantly being invaded and disturbed by Donghae. Though a personal and more selfish more part of him wishes he didn't.  
  
Hyukjae may have welcome Donghae to his home because of their arrangement but it doesn’t mean he has to accept Donghae into every nook and corner of his life. It’s a fact that Donghae is finding it more and harder to swallow every time when he thinks of how this thing between them is only temporary and Donghae’s submission was freely sold and bought on hefty amount of cash.    
  
Donghae hovers anxiously by the stairway, he has to confirm it with his own two eyes. “I should go and check it out then,” he says abruptly, taking a step forward in the group’s direction and about to dash off with them but—  
  
“Donghae,” Taerin grabs hold of his wrist, pulling him to a stop before he can get anywhere, “it’ll take them at least an hour to set everything up and still Suijin and I require some more time to get it ready for your use.”  
  
“But—“ he starts, frown set in place.  
  
“Master Hyukjae also told me to remind you that you have a strict list of daily chores you must adhere to and any deviation from it will be met with consequences,” she says in such a flat and dry tone that leaves no room for argument, and Donghae stands frozen in his spot, knees locking up and spins ramrod straight. “If you are finish with your study then please go visit the greenhouse and tend to your plants.”  
  
Even from a thousand miles away, Hyukjae dictates his every move, every breath and every thought so that no matter the distance Donghae is completely compliant to Hyukjae’s will; he is bound by a collar that only tightens the farther away Hyukjae get.  
  
Hyukjae’s rule is absolute and Donghae obey absolutely. It is the edict that was laid down between them the moment Donghae had signed the contract and disobedience is met with swift and creative punishment.      
  
Donghae vividly recalls last time he openly disobeyed Hyukjae’s direct order, he went without clothes for a week as his sentence. The first three days, Donghae was too shy and self-conscious to come out of his room, leaving the servants to bring in his food and anything else he needed in the privacy of his own bedroom and away from any curious eyes but by the end of the week he was comfortable enough to sit with Hyukjae in the study room in nothing but his collar and ankle cuff as Hyukjae work.    
  
After that incident, Donghae had tread carefully around Hyukjae for several weeks because though Hyukjae never raise his hand in anger against Donghae, there’s something about Hyukjae being angry at him that makes him want to shrivel up in shame every time Hyukjae’s cast that disappointed look his way.  
  
While Donghae’s anger tends lean toward the more explosive and volatile side, Hyukjae’s anger is sharply quiet and infinitely cold.  Donghae blows up like raging a tidal wave, swift and violent and sweeping everything up in its destructive path but Hyukjae’s is more like the edge of finely polished sword that cut you down in one perfectly exacting motion, not once will you even feel its biting sting until you’re in pieces and bleeding on the floor.  
  
It is the displeased look on Hyukjae’s face overall that strike at him like a hammer to glass and the wordless and cutting expectation of, “you should know better,” surrounding Donghae in a stifling smoky haze. Failing Hyukjae is the worst crime on earth, Donghae would often reflect afterward in those moments of helpless desperation when Hyukjae’s icy silent chills cut at him.   
  
“Alright,” Donghae says, willing to concede this point. He doesn’t want Hyukjae to be upset with him. “Just come get me soon as you’re finish, alright?”  
  
At Taerin’s nod, Donghae hurriedly pass the stairway, into the foyer, through the labyrinthine hallways, and out into the back of the manor. He treks around the block of stones and boulders bracketing the manor’s enormous swimming pool and the manmade rushing waterfall, and onto a stone mosaic pathway connecting the entertainment and recreation area of the backyard to the more private and quiet personal area that Hyukjae and Donghae like to relax in.  
  
He hums to himself as he descends down the path, his view dotted by vibrant color of red and purple and pink and blue flowers swirling in full bloom. When he finally reach his destination, he stops several feet away from the arching bridge hanging over a small man-made pond circling an island gazebo, he cast a wistful glance at it—it would be absolutely nice to take a nap there but he turns on his heel and walks toward several carefully maintain garden beds and there right in front of him is a large glass greenhouse.  
  
Donghae pushes open the greenhouse’s door and is greeted by a rush of sweet coiling mixture fruits and flowers scent tickling his nose and not surprisingly what come into his view are what seem to be an endless array of flowers and plants bursting at the seam.  
  
He strolls deeper into the greenhouse, bypassing the herbal garden, the hanging grapes, the juicy bright red strawberries, and of course one Mijoung.  
  
Donghae waves a greeting to the crouching man sitting beside a row of tomato beds, who barely give Donghae a look as he stares at the tomato he has in his hand like it held all the wonder of the world.   
  
“Mijoung, I’m going to visit my plants now,” Donghae tries again but Mijoung just grunts back in reply. Donghae shrugs and continues forth, it’s better to let Mijoung be because very few can be as obsessive about gardening as Mijoung.  
  
Eventually, Donghae pulls to a stop at two small garden beds off near end of the green house. It contain tiny batches of raspberries and blackberries on one side and assortment of flowers here and there on the other. There are also three plotted cactus plants to the side of the garden bed, they were Donghae’s first ventured into the world of gardening and Mijoung untrustingly gives him the cactus plants, the least likely to die of neglect or from Donghae’s unskilled hand.  
  
He grabs the watering can and the bucket on the wheelbarrow nearby, and inside the bucket are his gardening tools—a pruner, hand towel, gloves, and several other handy stuffs. He drags a garden kneeler, tucked up against the wheelbarrow, over to one of the garden beds; he get down on his knees on the kneeler and starts to meticulously prune the damaged part of his flowers away, doing it in absent sort of fashion the way his mind easily drops down to a hazy warm space where all the energy burns out of him and he’s in a relative calm state of mind.  
  
Hyukjae had called it Donghae’s stress garden, a place vent out his frustration and anger but mostly it’s a way to relax and soothe away any fray nerves for rise up for unaccountable reasons.  
  
It’d been good for him and he has Hyukjae to thank for that.  
  
Donghae would have never took up on it if Hyukjae hadn’t told him to do it as part of his daily chore routine but it’s seeing Hyukjae, ever formidable and fierce in the boardroom, sweat and dirt on his brows as he roll up his sleeves and drop down to his knees on the kneeler, carefully teaching Donghae how to pull at the weeds, how different kind fertilizers benefit different kind of plants, how to watch the temperature and lighting of the greenhouse, how to cut away at the damaged part to keep the plants healthy and strong, and how to give each plant the care and attention they deserve.   
  
Hyukjae taught Donghae how to responsible for a life that is not his own, however small and insignificant it is.  The same way Hyukjae conscientiously tends to Donghae’s need as if they were his own.  
  
Just like how these small garden beds are in Donghae’s care, Donghae is Hyukjae’s own personal pet project. Which, Donghae considers, is better than nothing because he is treated with such kind and gentleness if a bit strict and severe… okay, maybe not just ‘a bit’.  
  
Hyukjae is off in Shanghai for a very important meeting and possibly conquering the eastern seaboard of China, knowing him. He is a control freak in the field as he is at home, a tyrant who mercilessly reigns over everyone with a quiet and domineering personality that effortlessly seizes control of a room the moment he walk in; he who takes up all the space in Donghae’s head with just a look and Donghae easily crumble under Hyukjae’s unforgiving gaze.  
  
But in that dominance and absolute control, where Donghae had earlier learned by another’s hand how demanding and harsh it can be, he finds security and tenderness under Hyukjae’s. What he realized in Hyukjae’s is that if Donghae is willing to give a bit, Hyukjae would take it and then hand it back a tenfold.  
  
Be good and he’ll lavish fervent care and adoration your way but Donghae has a hard time staying obedience for long, there’s always a nagging itch that he always give in to in the end; however, looking back at his lengthy trial of punishments from Hyukjae, perhaps if Hyukjae was like any other dominant that Donghae had met he would maybe learn to stop through fear and caution but it’s as though Hyukjae likes that Donghae occasionally act outs in defiant and misbehave himself, that Donghae can be difficult and a challenging at times and though Hyukjae seems to take great joy in curving that rebellion, he seems to be far more amuse by it than anything.  
  
Hyukjae is a paradox that Donghae has difficulty understanding but he wants to.  
  
Oh, how he wants to, Donghae thinks helplessly to himself as he cuts at a dead leaf off of the stalk of an oriental lily and aggressively puts the focus back into this plants again. His attention always trail back to Hyukjae, embarrassingly enough, but he can’t afford to get distracted on his work for long least he cut one of his flower off by mistake and that he doesn’t want to explain to Hyukjae how that’d happen.   
  
It takes some time to thoroughly go through each plant, checking their health and tending to their specific need, but once he finishes up with the pruning and watering them he goes off to bother Mijoung, who takes to his presence as something of annoyance but useful as he makes Donghae get to work on harvesting the newly ripe tomatoes for tomorrow dinner and seeding the new plants.  
  
They fill up the space of the greenhouse with their idle chatter as they work, or really Donghae talks about things that cross his mind, that his berries are growing fine this week, the new book he’s reading, and interesting gossip that caught his ears while Mijoung just grunt back in reply every now and then.    
  
The hours pass by effortlessly and carelessly and without Donghae knowing, the sky is now the color of the inside of seashell—a swirl pale pink and gold tinted speckle blanketing the evening sky.  
  
Taerin appears before Donghae in her black leather pumps, her heels come into his view when he turn to his side to get the trowel.      
  
He looks up and up, and comes face to face with Taerin’s bemused face. “Is it done?” he asks, brimming with excitement.  
  
“It’s done,” she says, eyes darting pass him to fall not so subtly on Mijuong’s back, who is still intently focus on the cucumber plants.  
  
He jerks upward and drops the sheer in his hand, making a cloud clanging sound as it hit the floor and causing Mijoung to shoot a glare his way which he wisely choose to ignore.  He hastily rip off his gloves and dust of any dirt on him before he rush out of the greenhouse without even a backward glance.    
  
“Donghae, clean up after yourself first!” he hears Mijoung shouting after him and then Taerin’s shyly offering to do it for him.  
  
Donghae roll his eyes at the thought of the two of them as his feet carries him across the backyard, through the grand hallways of the manor, and then up the grand stairways to the 2nd floor atrium.  
  
He isn’t the only one who suffer from an intermediate crush it seems, he thinks, amused.   
  
Donghae’s feet pounds across the 2nd floor hallways at a hurried pace and when he’s finally face to face with the double door of Hyukjae’s personal library cum home office, he catches his breath for moment, feeling too much like the air had escaped him and his pounding heart about to jump right out of his chest.  
  
Once he calm his racing heart and his breath eventually even out, he gingerly pushes one of the doors to open and it easily gives away to him. He walks into to a majestic room that continuously takes his breath away whenever he visit.  
  
To the left of Donghae is a wall of books surrounding an electric fireplace and a spiral staircase of winding wood that leads up to the upper floor landing of walls and upon walls of even more book that filled up the 2nd floor. The entire right side is take up by a wall of glass that gives an undisrupted view of the sky and the land, and beyond that glass wall is the balcony that overview the garden below. Straight in front of him and protruding out of the wall is a large L-shape desk that seemingly takes up that entire side of the room, but the most notable part of it is that large LCD display that hangs in the background like Hyukjae really needed that big of a TV screen for whatever reason. Filling up the wide space between the desk and Donghae are a set of silver tone sectional couches, and a couple of loveseats and lounge chairs that doesn’t so much face the desk entirely but lends itself the order of importance by not blocking the view of the person seating there.  
  
But more importantly than anything, hanging from the ceiling and right in the middle of the room, long thick chains stretching downward between the office furniture and the fireplace, is a large silver birdcage taking center stage.  
  
For all the opulent and luxury of this room, the cage appears seemingly plain and simplistic within its border. It’s a circular shape cage that extended up into a dome, tall enough for Donghae to stand in and wide enough for Donghae to sleep in but other than that there’s no ornaments on it, no grandness to its design, and no exudation of wealth.  
  
Hyukjae’s taste always been very specific when it comes to the decoration on Donghae, his collar is a simple black leather, his ankle cuff is plain silver and now is birdcage is just a normal everyday birdcage because for Hyukjae: The thing I want to display the most are not these lifeless jewels or ornaments, but you.  
  
Donghae should be enough to grab the attention of all eyes that he meet and for Hyukjae he would, he would seize it all and return none because he belongs to Hyukjae.  
  
He gives a happy sigh as he step closers to his cage, he feet practically gravitates itself there until he’s pressing his cheek against the metal bar and shudders.  
  
A cage even among those of their circle isn't exactly a common thing. It takes a certain kind of person, a certain kind perversity to enjoy being imprison like an animal but Donghae behind a wide steel birdcage, a captive of his own desire—he gives another small happy shudder at that image. It took him a while to admit it, but Donghae finds comfort in the restrains and confinement, that there’s no escape for him and that Hyukjae thinks he is worth it to tucked away from other people’s wandering hands and eyes—that he is ultimately a prize, a gem precious enough for Hyukjae to keep lock up.  
  
Donghae wants to feel like a priceless treasure but most of all, he wants to be Hyukjae’s.  
  
He opens the latch of the cage door, the lock and key seems to be missing but Donghae is sure Taerin has it, probably anyway. He ducks his head and slides into cage easily as if it was made for him and oh it is.  
  
There are several set of pillow placed around the cage for his use and Donghae abruptly drops down to the floor of the cage with a loud thump, the cushions beneath him pads his fall. He rolls onto his back, staring up at the dome shell of the cage with a gaping emptiness he didn’t even know was there until now.  
  
He should be enjoying this, he’d been looking toward for this for weeks now but—but—  
  
Hyukjae won't be home till four more days and Donghae misses him with an aching longing that could fill up an entire ocean. Hyukjae and he had traded phone and video calls the first couple of days when Hyukjae could find time to spare between his meeting and conference. Donghae would fill up the calls with how his day had went, his ever difficult and taxing classes, and usual gossips about his classmates and Hyukjae would entertain him by going along with it despite how very busy he is.  
  
He had already took two days off to spend some times with Donghae and that's already consider to be magnanimous on Hyukjae's part because Hyukjae’s job is a priority above everything else and Donghae is well—he’s an afterthought if he’s lucky enough.  
  
But it’s not like Shanghai is half way across the world yet the distance feels even more immeasurable by the stretch of time, eight days feel too much like eight years. Even the calls isn’t enough in the end because it’s not the same as talking directly to Hyukjae—Donghae can imagine the furrow of Hyukjae’s brows when he doesn’t know what to say or think about what Donghae had just said or did, Hyukjae has that twitch near the corner of his lips when he want to smile but he really shouldn’t, and Hyukjae’s eyes are smoldering fire when Donghae’s bruises peek up from the slip of his shirt.  
  
Now, the calls and messages that he manage get from Hyukjae are always concise and directive and far too short, reminding him to keep up his study and chores and try to behave himself until they eventually trail off to only an occasional texts here and there.       
  
Donghae doesn’t dare to even text or call Hyukjae, doesn’t even know if he could. The boundary of their relationship doesn’t give Donghae enough leeway to test that and Donghae is almost afraid of the answer of it.  
  
He pulls a pillow toward him and squeezing it between in his arm. “Ugh,” Donghae grunts into the pillow. He hates not knowing the answer but he hates more how cowardly he can be.  
  
He shouldn’t be wallowing in this misery when he can enjoy his new cage and that’s when the weight of fatigue of the day suddenly hit him and he’s feeling drowsy but sleep seems to allude him.  
  
Letting out a frustrated sigh, he tightly squeeze his eyes shut and forcibly set himself adrift in in the sea of sleep, hoping to dream of Hyukjae’s hands on him and his voice soothing Donghae’s hounding anxiety and loneliness away.  
  
Eventually, all goes quiet and the darkness takes him.   
  


  
\---

 

Donghae’s eyes flutter open to an amber glow coloring his view, he rub his aching eyes and lets out a loud yawn. He stretches out, the creeks of his bones pulling at each other feels far too good and—  
  
“Have a good nap?” An amused voice greets him.   
  
"You're home!" says Donghae, immediately perking up despite the lull of sleep calling him back. He stumble to his hands and knees, and crawls closer to the bars of the cage, looking up at Hyukjae in barely contain excitement as Hyukjae sprawls across the couch with a comfortable and lazy ease. "So how did Shanghai go? Did you make anyone cry? And have the people over there declare you their king and overlord?"  
  
The corners of Hyukjae's lips curve upward nearly into a smile that Donghae knows he's resisting it. "I don't know where you get this idea that I am such a tyrant,” he says.    
  
"I don't know, Hyukjae," Donghae say with a shrug and sits back down on the cushion, thighs folded to one side as he casually touches the black thick leather collar around his neck with one hand and the other reaches downward and traces the metal cuff around his left ankle; they are both a physical reminder of the claim Hyukjae has on him. “Perhaps I speak from personal experience?”  
  
“Oh really,” Hyukjae says, raising a brow, “then maybe you should just continue to stay in your cage for the night. You’re been getting more mouthy since I left.”  
  
Donghae makes a face. “That’s just how I am,” he mumbles, reaching out to clutch the bar in his hands. Too many times other dominants had look at his loose tongue as insubordination as though obedience is a lesson he need to be carefully taught.  
  
“I know,” Hyukjae says, lips twitching and eyes soft and alights with amusement, “and it seems I don’t mind it all that much either but.”  
  
Hyukjae abruptly gets up from the couch and takes off his suit jacket much to Donghae’s horror and utter delight.  As soon as he makes an effort to tug his tie free and Donghae hurriedly moves to get up from his spot but Hyukjae shoots Donghae a telling look.  
  
“Stay,” he orders, and Donghae obediently drops back down, spine ramrod straights as he watches the show in helpless fascination and itching to be the one to help Hyukjae get undressed instead.  
  
It’s supposed to be his job, he’s always help Hyukjae get out of his work suit after a hard day at the office but of course Hyukjae isn’t letting Donghae go unpunished for that comment. Donghae looks down at his hands in total despair because Hyukjae’s punishment are always so unusual and strange but somehow it always hit precisely dead center when it comes to Donghae.  
  
As Donghae quietly sulks from his spot and Hyukjae is down to his dress shirt and pants now, jacket and ties place aside, Donghae remembers the question that been plaguing him for days since Hyukjae had been away and if he doesn’t ask now he won’t be able to later.   
  
“Why you stop?” he asks and Hyukjae pauses midstride back to the couch.  
  
“What?” Hyukjae gives him a baffle look.  
  
“You just suddenly stopped contacting me, well there’s still the occasional text but it’s not the same thing,” he mumbles, looking down at his lap and starts to pick at the invisible lint off of the cushion bottom of the cage. “Did I do something wrong? Or did you just find me too annoying to bother?”  
  
“Donghae,” Hyukjae says and Donghae, so conditioned to respond to that voice, can’t help but grudgingly looks up and what he sees is a reward in itself.   
  
“I wasn’t ignore you because you were annoying. You’re a distraction that I can’t afford over there,” Hyukjae says quietly, refusing to meet Donghae’s gaze and covering his mouth with his hand in what appears to be out of embarrassment as the tip of his ears goes red.  “I thought if I even heard your voice or even see your face, I would drop everything just so I can come back to you sooner but as you can see I’m pretty weak since I’m here earlier than intended.”  
  
“Did you finish your work then?” he asks, tilting his head curiously.  
  
Hyukjae gives Donghae an incredulous look as if Donghae needed to ask that. “Yea, I finished it as fast as I could so I can come home to be here with you when your cage arrive. I didn’t want to miss out on it, knowing how much you been looking forward to it.”  
  
Donghae trembles with a sudden burst of happiness that makes his chest tighten uncomfortably and unseats his heart between his ribcage. He drops his face to his hands as he feel the heat rush to his cheeks and seizing him up.  
  
How lame that such simple admission from Hyukjae can easily shake his world but--  
  
“So you miss me,” he says slowly and carefully into his hands, as though if he say it out loud it’ll be true and cemented in stone, and then he jerks his head up. “You miss me, miss me.” His face breaks out into an uncontrollable grin.  
  
“Is it so hard to believe?” Hyukjae mumbles, still seemingly embarrassed—his ears are all red now and Donghae wishes there isn’t a bar separating them right now so he can lean up and bites them.  
  
“Yes,” Donghae says with a shrug. “I didn’t think dominant ever would admit to such a silly thing.”  
  
Hyukjae pulls his hand away and the flush of embarrassment disappear as Hyukjae’s lips drawn tight. “Donghae, I don’t know what he’d done to you to make you believe that,” he says evenly, crouching down right in front of Donghae and they’re close enough that Donghae can reach out and touch Hyukjae.     
  
“But we, dominant, aren’t a special breed or anything. We’re still human beings, of flesh and blood,” Hyukjae continues, lacing their fingers together, and he leans in, kissing the tip of Donghae’s fingers, “and just like everyone else, we get insecure and embarrassed, we hurt and cry, and we too anxiously longs for the person by our side.” Hyukjae’s looks up, then, and Donghae’s breath is caught in his throat because though Hyukjae’s words and action are gentle but his eyes are wild and fierce, as though they were going to devour him right then. “We just do in the most violent and controlling way possible.”  
  
Donghae swallows, mouth going dry. “I—,” he says, dizzy with a half-caught fever.    
  
“But you love that don’t you, Donghae?” Hyukjae asks, smiling softly at him.  
  
Hyukjae can be so sly and wicked that Donghae either wants to scream at the unfairness of it all or wants to drown in it.  “Y—yes,” he confesses, quiet and shaky, and starts to reach out to touch Hyukjae but Hyukjae quickly pulls back and moves out of his reach much to Donghae’s disappoint.  
  
Hyukjae shakes his head. “Your punishment, remember?” he says, eyes twinkling maddenly.  
  
Donghae grab a discarded pillow beside him and faceplant into it, letting out a silent outrage scream of injustice of it all.  
  
“Taerin brought your textbook and notes here,” Hyukjae says casually as if nothing had happened and easily shifting to the next topic at hand. “Did you finish?”  
  
Donghae lifts his head slightly to see Hyukjae going through his notes on the couch in front him and to say, “Yes,” and at Hyukjae’s blank stare, he sourly admits, “well not really, I just need one more chapter.”  
  
“You have your OChem test on Wednesday day right?” he asks as if he doesn’t have a copy of all Donghae’s schedule.  
  
Donghae nods his head slowly, not liking where this is going one bit.  
  
“Alright, I’ll just quiz you on what you have so far then.” Hyukjae makes a gesture for Donghae to sit up properly and pay attention.  
  
“Eh?” Donghae scrunches up his nose. “Do I have to?”  
  
“Donghae,” says Hyukjae, low and terse and Donghae’s entire body tingles in respond. “How about this, every time you get a question right I’ll reward you with these chocolate strawberries I brought back from Shanghai.” He casts a glance a tray of very big and juicy chocolate strawberries place near a coffee table, knowing how Donghae love strawberries.  
  
Donghae huffs. “Fine,” he says, making a reluctant face despite the quiet rush of happiness flooding him right in this instance because Hyukjae is home and he is where Hyukjae is and everything is perfect.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n: there wasn't really going to be part two to the cage scene, i was planning to jump back in time to how they first meet for the 2nd chapter but then i thought to myself wow you are a horrid tease :||||| so i end up giving in to my whims and wrote it /no shame. the thing is i really like the 2nd part more than the first, b/c it's illustrate a lot of points im trying to hit with this 'verse that the bdsm life style comes in many variations (!!!) and that we mainly get expose to the idea of bondage gear, whipping, spanking scenes as the mainstream version when it comes to bdsm and sure yea that does happen but that's just one part of it. for hyukjae and donghae they are very normal ppl who like gardening, doing work/school, and quietly read together but hey there's a collar, oh here's a cage and what do you mean you pretty much control every aspect of his life??? like for them is this intermix of normacy and bdsm that makes their relationship interesting to them and they don't just have a couple of hours to fall into this role of master and pet but this is them 24/7 around each other and they're happy with it. also, one of the most important things here is the potrayal of a dom and how idk ppl think the dom is this fierce person who beat up the sub as part of the kink and call them slave, pet, or something and is like super great??? but a dom is just a person who is given the leash of control, there's really nothing special about them at all :||| and yea i want hyukjae to be human to blush and feel embarrased to be angry and shy and IDK HYUKJAE IS HYUKJAE FIRST BEFORE HE'S A DOM b/c donghae isn't in love with hyukjae because he's donghae's dom but b/c hyukjae is hyukjae right??? basically i have a lot of feels for this 'verse, oops.


	3. Cat Got Your Tongue

Their Saturday evening begins with two words: “Behave yourself,” Hyukjae orders as he put on his tie in front of the full-length mirror in the walk-in closet.

Donghae pulls himself upward from his spot on the bed. “Of course, when do I not,” he says with a roll of his eyes and when Hyukjae glance back into the bedroom to give him a doubtful look in return, he heaves a dramatic sigh. “I promise okay, I’ll be on my best behavior tonight for you.”  

“That’s all I ask, thank you,” Hyukjae says, turning back and continues to fix his tie for their night out at the Club Fantasia’s Annual Bondage Ball.

Unlike Gomorra and Sodom, Club Fantasia strictly caters to the high-end crowd whose ‘exotic taste’ ask for all the privacy and discretion that the money can buy. Donghae been there a few times with Hyukjae and afterward he can’t help feeling like he a washout of imitation every time.  In there, the sub are younger, prettier, and completely interchangeable, the way they tend to hang off the arms of their master like adornment, and there’s something about that that always set Donghae on edge.    

“But I don’t get why we have to go,” Donghae grumbles, falling back onto the bed with a moan. He looks up at the ceiling mournfully, fully prepare for a night of idle talks and total boredom. “It’s not like you have to be _there_.”

Even the name, Club Fantasia, speaks of pretentious and elitism and though Hyukjae easily meets their requirement, the wealth and power behind his name eclipse any, it isn’t actually the normal crowd that Hyukjae prefers to run with but, “it’s for charity,” he explains once again to Donghae’s ears, “and the one hosting it this year is an old friend of mine so I have to pass my greeting to her in person at least.”

Hyukjae could have simply fit himself into their circle without much effort made on his part but he doesn’t and Donghae is greatly thankful for that because Donghae would have been one of those subs, a showpiece to brag about, if Hyukjae wasn’t Hyukjae.

Donghae pushes himself off the bed and walks over to Hyukjae, who is currently busying fixing his cuffs now. He grabs the suit jacket hanging on the hook next to the mirror, placed there previously by him when Hyukjae was in the shower, and holds it out for Hyukjae as he finishes tugging the cuffs in place.  

Hyukjae slips his arm into the arm hole of the jacket one by one—a charcoal color suit that is usually a dull anyone else but Hyukjae wears it well, the way it cut into his waist in all the right places and fitted to his body like a second skin.

He turns around to face Donghae and lets Donghae goes to work on the front of his jacket, buttoning up the front with careful and meticulous hand.  

“Don’t worry we’ll be there only an hour or so and then we’ll be back home right away,” he offers as though that will console Donghae.

“If you say so,” Donghae mumbles as he finishes and starts to even out the crinkles of Hyukjae’s suit.  

Hyukjae lets out an amused snort that draws Donghae attention back to him. “Maybe you shouldn’t be talking because your tongue is becoming rather loose lately,” he comments idly, but there’s something about the way he had said it that sends shiver down Donghae’s spine.  

Donghae pouts. “But I only—“ he starts to protest.

Hyukjae moves into Donghae’s space, effectively cutting Donghae’s off and abruptly all thought disappear from Donghae’s head and all he can think of is the proximity of Hyukjae’s body pressing into him and his breath ghosting Donghae’s cheeks.  “Donghae,” he murmurs, quiet and low and Donghae nearly trembles at that word alone.  “You can keep quiet for me tonight right?” he asks, eyes glinting in challenge. “From this instance onward, I don’t want to hear a single word from you until we get home again.”

Donghae nod slowly, heart racing. “Y—yes, I—”

Hyukjae gives him a pointed look and Donghae’s mouth immediately snaps shut.  “Good,” he says with a grin, retreating back to his spot and it’s like Donghae can breathe again. “You’re doing so well for me already.”

And all Donghae can do is acknowledges that compliment is with a tilt of his head and a pleased smile that grace his face whenever a praise from Hyukjae comes his way.

Hyukjae walks over to one of the cabinet across from him and pulls out the top drawer where the cufflinks are. Donghae instantly surges forward to assist but, “Now, how long do you plan to make me wait before you get dress yourself?” he asks and Donghae pauses, looking down at his sweatpants and shirt, and sighs.

 

\---

 

Club Fantasia is located out in the country hill side where there are a fortunate lack of neighbors for miles and the area is low-key enough that it doesn’t drive much suspicion why a number of wealthy and power figures who all play on the political and societal stage of South Korea would often gather there for. 

The more Donghae let himself think about it, Club Fantasia, appearance wise, is made to be a conspiracy theorist wet dream like a some weird underground powerful organization trying to rule the South Korean’s government from the shadow if Donghae wasn’t fully aware it’s just a club for a bunch of kinky rich people basically—a fetish club by any other name.

Hyukjae included, when Donghae unwisely pointed that out to him the first time and Hyukjae had worn a scowl for days after that.

After having gone through a rather extensive security check and Hyukjae handing his car key to the valet, they step through the grand entryway and into the foyer of the mansion, and is immediately greeted by a butler whom Hyukjae gives a check to, to gain entry to the event, with plenty of zeroes across that nearly make Donghae’s eyes bulge out.

The mansion is massive in itself, with the most outlandish decoration that Donghae had ever seen—gold and crystal chandelier hang from the ceiling and paintings that are worth millions won plaster against the wall and animal rugs hug the floor. At first appearance it looks like more like a museum than a home but there are bedrooms on the upper floors, a dining area, and home theater but that’s not what Hyukjae and Donghae here for.

They are led down to the lower level of the mansion, discreetly through the secret passage located in the library and down a winding tunnel and stairs. They stop right in front of a massive black thick double doors, with two big body guards place at the entrance, and the butler enters the passcode on the electronic keypad that open into a large dimly lit chamber.

Hyukjae and Donghae steps inside and Donghae had to blink to adjust to the change. The lighting is soft and hazy colors by an amber glow but still sufficient enough to see and the temperate is sticky warm that a lack of layer of clothing is entirely too desirable. Music hums in the background, a soft melody that tease at the ear and the bar is sets unobtrusively to the side, not the meant to be the point of interest in this place but still garner enough interest with the way a small heady crowd surround it. Glass beads cascade from the ceiling like draperies, separating each sectional sofa pieces that are scattered across the floor where people are lounging and chatting about as servers tend to them. The setting itself reminds Donghae of a plush nightclub lounge that can be found anywhere in the world but with the added desirable effect of intimacy and privacy packed into this underground facility.

It’s actually somewhat normal, if it wasn’t for the large circular stage placed in the center of the room where a man currently is tied up in a chair as a woman whacked him with a flogger and he’s writhing happily in pain under her ministration.   

The audience actively watches, feasting on the action themselves despite not partaking in it, but none give a pause on it as though that is the norm around here and it is.

Donghae’s eyes pass over the crowd of varying age and background, most of them look marginally normal in their formal suit and dress as though they had stepped out of award ceremony if it wasn’t for other scantily clad men and women in bondage gear or otherwise at their side or sitting at their companion’s wearing, decked out in jewelry and precious metals and very little of anything else.

It’s hard to know where else to look if you weren’t use to that sort of thing and in this case it’s all standard considering where they are and the circumstances, but Donghae, in his leather pants and mesh top, actually looks conspicuous here standing beside Hyukjae in his carefully tailored suit, if it wasn’t for the black thick collar that hang around his neck and the way Hyukjae’s hand is at his back, directive and firm, that connects him these proclivity.

It’s strange that Donghae would be the one that is mostly covered up and the fact that he is, he sticks out like a sore thumb and easily drawing the lingering attention of the crowd.

A beautiful woman in a bright red dress comes up to them, after taking notice of their entrance, and Hyukjae and her exchanges a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’m glad you can make it,” Tiffany says, looking quite happy to see them.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Hyukjae replies, and a smile finds its way to his face.   

Her brows crease in an unimpressed line. “Don’t lie to me,” she scoffs with an upward roll of her eyes but her tone is playful. “If I didn’t specifically ask you to be here you would have find every excuse in the world to not come.”

Hyukjae gives a sheepish shrug in return. “It’s for a good cause and I heard the hostess is the great Tiffany Hwang so how can I refuse?”

She just shake her head fondly at him and then, she turns her attention to Donghae, adopting a rather affectionate expression on her face. “Hello to you too, Donghae,” she says warmly.

Donghae flashes her a quick grin before lowering in his head in greeting but doesn’t give her any answering reply. Tiffany raise her eyebrow at his wordless respond and looks back Hyukjae and she must have seen something on his face because she doesn’t push for anything more than that except her lips stretch in a knowing smirk.

“Alright, I still have to greet other guests and things to attend to, so I’ll let you two go and enjoy the party,” she tells them but before she depart she leaves Hyukjae with a message, “Oh, Park Chungho has been waiting for you, so you better go to him before he loses his patience. You know how it is.”

Hyukjae sighs like a grieve victim and waves good-bye to her as she turns to leave. “This is going to be a long night,” he says to Donghae, eyes scanning the crowd until it falls upon a table on the opposite side of the room, tucked away in its own corner slightly hidden but still maintains a good view of the center of the stage.

“Come,” he says as he heads toward to the table and Donghae follows a step behind, bound by nothing but the simple command of Hyukjae’s word that keeps him leash.

As soon they closes in on the table, Donghae get a better sight of the people that occupied it through the curtain of beads that fall on each side of the table. Several familiar faces that appear in his view, that a clear picture starts to paint in his head of an older gentleman in a white suit and a woman with greying hair but wears it like a queen, wearing a revealing sea foam green dress with slit that goes up to her thigh. They are seated in the sectional sofa that surrounds the table and faces the stage, and at the older man feet is pretty young man watching the stage with focus attention, and the woman has her companion curled up on the sectional, laying her head on her partner’s lap as they watch the show. 

Hyukjae stops in front of the table and takes the empty spot closest to him, sitting down at the edge of the sectional. Immediately the seated people are distracted by the sight of them and brightens up when they realize who it was that disrupt their viewing

“Lee Hyukjae, you are here finally!” the man booms sitting on the seat closest to Hyukjae to his right side, a small man with a rather loud voice and an unconventional face but he’s one of the few acquaintances of Hyukjae that Donghae likes. A managerial director of a banking empire, Park Chungho defining feature is a very distinct blotchy birthmark on his face and his boisterous personality.  “I thought you would never come out of your cave, because god know how long since I have last seen your face.”

Donghae crouches down from his spot to find the cushion he knows will be underneath the table, though intently focusing on his task his ears are attentive enough to pick up, “Chungho-hyung and Hoosook-nona, hello. I’m glad to see you two again,” Hyukjae says in greeting and just as Donghae expected, the cushion is right there.

Donghae drags it out and places it on the floor next to Hyukjae’s feet. He drops down on the cushion, joining two other on the floor and making himself comfortable for the long night that is ahead of them.

“I knew you can’t hide from us forever,” Hooksook says. An icon in the fashion industry and the leading designer of a famed fashion house, Hoosook is an aging woman who hasn’t lost the vibrancy of her youth or her appetite for other, more adventurous, side of the bed.  “There’s only so much excuse I can take before I want to storm into your home and drag you here myself,” Hoosook adds, looking particularly lively now as she stroke the hair of her partner, Micha, a woman of similar age as her whom Donghae recalls Hyukjae telling him that she’s a college professor of some renown.

Micha waves at Donghae and Donghae waves back in acknowledgement but thankfully no words were exchange and that’s only because Micha has always been abnormally quiet, at least to Donghae anyway.

“My deepest apologies,” Hyukjae says, lowering his head and taking a rather remorseful expression on his face. “I should have made more effort to clear my schedule to make time for the club.”  

“It’s fine!” Chungho laughs, loud enough to a ringing sound in Donghae’s ears and by the look at Chungho’s companion obvious grimace, he too felt it very much so. “It’s good that you’re here with us now since we got a lot to catch up on but before I forget, this is Kwon Dongsun,” Chungho says, gesturing to the man seated to the across from Hyukjae. “He just entered Fantasia a couple of weeks ago.”

“Ah,” Hyukjae says, leaning forward and holds his hand out to Dongsun. “Lee Hyukjae, nice to meet you.”

Dongsun reaches out to take Hyukjae’s hand before leaning back into his seat again. “I have already know of you from Chungho-nim but it is an honor to meet you anyway,” Dongsun says, and upon close examination, Donghae can sees that he’s rather unimpressive man that doesn’t particularly stand out appearance wise nor shines in anyway but there’s something about the way his eyes keep flicking to Donghae that gives him the sense of creep.  

“The pleasure is all mine,” Hyukjae replies, carefully neutral, falling into a distant politeness that Hyukjae reserves for strangers and people he finds troublesome but it barely disrupts the cordial airs of the table with the way Hyukjae control the flow of the conversation.  

The Hyukjae in front of him right now is the perfect stranger: civil, amiable, and impenetrable in all his glory, wooing the crowd with his charm and how they easily crumble into his hands. He wears his mask so well that Donghae has a hard time knowing which is real and which is the lie.

Dongsun’s eyes abruptly fall upon Donghae again and stays there. “And this is your sub, the infamous Donghae, eh? I heard so much about him,” Dongsun says, eyes roaming over Donghae in scrutinizing slowness, making Donghae’s skin crawl. “He’s even more beautiful than the rumor suggest.”

Donghae shifts anxiously on his cushion and looks up at Hyukjae just in time to see Hyukjae smiles, all teeth and sharp edges, at Dongsun that the man quickly averts his gaze from Donghae, momentarily flustered.

The woman sprawled out at Dongsun’se feet is a beautiful, with glassy eyes and pouty lips and a lace choker wraps around her neck. The black corset she has on hides nothing of her many charm and though Donghae has never meet her before, she gives Donghae a rather poisonous look like he is the dirt beneath her boots. Donghae, more annoyed than anything, blatantly stares back as though daring her to do something about it.

It’s not Donghae’s fault that her master is sleazebag.

“He is, isn’t he?” Hyukjae muses, and Donghae shoots the woman another glare before preening under the praise, even if it’s say under a pretense, Donghae happily soaks up to it, like a flower starve on sunlight.

Two server breaks the conversation bubble of their table to place down the appetizers and drinks for them to feast on.

“You know Dongsun, Hyukjae is known to be very much taken with Donghae that he rarely lets Donghae out of his sight,” Chungho says, leering at the two of them as he picks up a roll of shrimp and takes a bite of it before handing the rest to the man at his feet. “Even we only met Donghae a few times ourselves and even those time were rather short and abrupt.”

“Oh, _oh_ then why don’t you have Donghae perform something for us?” Hoosook suggests, clapping her hand excitedly and she is momentarily distracted when Micha sub picks up the wine glass and lifts it to Hoosook’s lips for her to take a sip. “I don’t think anybody here have ever seen Donghae on stage before, so this is a good time to show what he’s made of! You can’t hide Donghae forever anyway and this is a great way to expose Donghae to the rest of the club members.”

Donghae’s hand freezes midway from reaching for the baked clam and quickly retreats like he was burned. Perform? Him? Right now? No way, he’s not some performing monkey standing on stage at a snap of a finger, he fumes.

“Perhaps some other time,” Hyukjae politely declines, picking up where Donghae’s left off. He puts a handful of baked clams on his plate and hands it to Donghae to eat. “I don’t have anything prepare.”

“That wouldn’t be a problem when you can always tie him up since you’re a master of the kinbaku and Dongsun,” she turns to him, grinning, “you really haven’t seen anything yet till you see what Hyukjae could do with a rope,” Hoosook says, eyes dreamy and soft at the image that her words must have conjured up in her head.  

With the plate in his lap, Donghae’s pauses slightly in his chewing, the taste of the baked clam get lost at the sudden news that arise from Hoosook. He can hazily recalls Hyukjae offhandedly mentioned he has a preference for ropes but other than that he never brought it up again and Donghae didn’t really think too much about it after that but if this is something that Hyukjae is really into then why he hasn’t done with Donghae when Donghae would gladly give himself to Hyukjae if he’d ask.

“Thank you, but I rather not,” Hyukjae says with a rueful smile.

Chungho frowns. “Come on, you pay an obscene amount of money to buy out his contract before anyone could even bid on him, so why shouldn’t you want to show him off even just a little?” he asks in disbelief.

“Oh it’s precisely because of that, that I can’t help being terribly jealous and narrow minded when it comes to Donghae,” Hyukjae says, the lie easily fall from his lips and Donghae tries not to be swallowed up by those honey soak words but it slips through the cracks of his defense and into Donghae’s heart anyway.

Hyukjae’s hand suddenly finds its way to Donghae’s hair and he cards his fingers through it, gently and surely. He leans down and presses a light kiss on the crown of Donghae’s head. “You understand right? Why I would want to keep him all to myself?”

Hyukjae is magnetic, eloquent, and effortlessly charming. He’s like a chameleon that easily changes it nature to fit any environment—highly adaptable, formidable, and fascinating, he has people dancing to palm of his hands in just a few carefully selected words. A multi-facet character that is more of enigma the more Donghae get to know him.

Sometimes, he wonder which one is the true Hyukjae, the one that can easily work the crowd and dictates pace of the conversation, steering clear of topics he wish not to discuss and somehow managing to avoid stepping on any one toes at that, or the gentle and kind Hyukjae who is clumsy with his feelings yet often finds way to bestow affection on to Donghae anyway. Or is he the merciless tyrant that controls Donghae’s absolutely, bound Donghae’s to his will till Donghae can’t think, can’t even breathe without him.

Chungho and Hoosook laughs out loud as though they are delighted by Hyukjae’s sweet admission, while Dongsun gives a stiff smile of his own, wary of a repeat from last time.

“How cute, you sounds so smitten,” Hoosook says, grinning widely as she glances down at Donghae. “But he’s strangely very quiet tonight, isn’t he?”

Donghae’s eating is disrupt again; he pauses mid bite, forcing the entire thing down his throat, unsettled at the thought of what would he do if she force him to speak up.

“He’s terribly shy around strangers,” Hyukjae says smoothly, deliberately looking at a slew of new faces at their table and Donghae nearly chokes on the absurdity of Hyukjae’s words. “It takes a while for him to open around new people.”

“That’s amusing because that’s the opposite of what I heard,” she says, words heavy with skepticism and Donghae, bewilderedly, wonders what the rumor said about him for her to be so certain of that.

“Then you must have heard wrong,” Hyukjae says lightly, unruffled. “Rumors rarely hold any truth to them as you know.”

“Oh, is that how it is?” Hoosook says, amused and before anybody can contribute anymore to topic, Hyukjae directs them back tonight event with the conversation eventually drifting into the each individual’s work and Donghae easily got lost in mindless chatter business and money.  

To keep the boredom at bay, Donghae continues to occupy himself with the food that are brought to their table as Hyukjae talks business with his acquaintances while their companions talk amongst themselves, leaving Donghae all to himself to do as he please.

At some point in time after he’s done eating, Donghae finds his way to the edge of the sectional, several seats away from Hyukjae and the rest, avidly watching the performance, this time it’s a woman strapped to a pole and there’s a tray of toys brought out for her master to use on her and as the man ponder over the selection, he feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns back to see Chungho’s companion, a handsome young man in leather shorts and suspender and little else, sliding into the seat next to him.

He smiles at Donghae and Donghae returns his own but no words pass his lips. This stranger is not one of Chungho usual’s partner but then again Chungho has a stable of subs that he often rotates in and out, so Donghae shouldn’t is not surprised by this fresh face that joins Chungho for tonight.

“Hi, I’m Ryung,” he introduces himself and Donghae nods in greeting. “I been wanting to meet you and your master for the longest time after hearing so many stories about you.”  

Donghae titles his head curiously and gestures for Ryung to continue.  “Well,” Ryung says, casting a sideways glance toward Hyukjae and grins.  “Your master is a handsome devil. He doesn’t carry himself like other doms that I know, the way he is dotes and isn’t afraid to be open with his affection but even though he looks kind, I bet he’s a firm hand, isn’t he?  
 I mean,” looking apologetic, he leans in close and lower his voice to Donghae’s ears, “I used to frequent Gomorrah before and around there you were known to be um, a rather difficult case that most doms steered clear of, so seeing you like this now is a completely different from the wild image I had of you previously. I didn’t believe right away when I heard of how Hyukjae-nim had finally tamed you, but wow.”

Donghae’s hands drops l into his lap, the smile on his face slowly fall away as he watches Ryung’s becoming engrossed with his own story but Ryung doesn’t seem to even notice Donghae’s hunch shoulders and tense line his body is giving off in waves.  

“To able to make you so docile, Hyukjae-nim must be really something. A gentle but firm dom, he’s just so my type,” he continues to gush and Donghae’s nails dig into his thigh with each words that fall from Ryung’s lips. “I heard that he haven’t taken up a contract with any other sub for many years before you came along but he played around with other subs before so he probably isn’t against taking up with another sub, right?” he asks, looking eager and anticipating, his hands fall on Donghae’s shoulder. “And I’m not asking for you to share your master but if you would let me borrow him for a session, that would be so, so great because when I heard he’s also a kinbaku practitioner that just make me want him to tie me up so badly and I shudder at the thought of being bound up by those soft hands and--”and that’s when Donghae snaps.

He abruptly turns to his head to the left and bites down the hand on his shoulder, teeth digging into the flesh hard enough that when Ryung tear it away with a pained scream, Donghae can taste a bit of blood on his tongue. He looks at Ryung’s frighten face and spits out the blood, snarling, “Do that and I’ll rip your throat apart.”

The lull of conversation around them drops dead to fall upon him and Ryung curls into himself, fearful and apprehensive, clutching at his injured hand into his chest, like Donghae was going to launch himself at Ryung at any moment.

Donghae could feel many pair of eyes on them, even those outside the table, but he doesn’t meet any of them as the simmering irritation in the pit of his stomach refuse to settle. Every single one of the muscles in his body is coiled tight, his entire body a live wire and he’s a bomb about to explode at any moment.

He gingerly glances over Ryung’s shoulder to see the flat expression drawn on Hyukjae’s face. “Donghae,” Hyukjae say, low and forceful with disappointment all packed in a single word that draws Donghae’s short. He holds still, like a puppet with his strings pull taut.

Hyukjae stands up and pulls away from his circle to head toward Donghae and Ryung. He passes Ryung without any backward glance and takes grabs Donghae’s wrist in his and pulls him up.

With a tight gripped on Donghae, he turns them around to face his acquaintances.  “I’m truly sorry,” he says, severed and contrite, bowing low in a perfect ninety degrees. “Donghae isn’t feeling well, so I’m going to bring home. Please send my apology to Tiffany and I will be in contact with you Chungho-hyung soon to discuss this matter personally.”

Chungho, for all that Donghae did to his sub, he seems subdued by the entire affair and even Hoosook wears a mirthful smile on her face as she tucks herself to into Micha’s side on the sectiona, while Dongsun looks at him with a new cautious eyes. “Do what you must,” Chungho says, waving Hyukjae away.

“Thank you.” Another bow before turning to Donghae. “Let’s go,” Hyukjae says, void of any detectable emotion.

Donghae winces but is quick to obey when Hyukjae makes his way out of chamber and Donghae sullenly trails after, feeling the eyes of the crowd center on their back the entire time. The journey out of the basement and up the manor is entirely too uneventful and edging with unease.  

On the front steps of the mansion, Hyukjae has the car brought to them. When the hands over the car key to Hyukjae, Donghae hurriedly gets into the passenger seat in a sour mood, slamming the door of the car shut but Hyukjae doesn’t make a comment of it.

The ride back home is strained; the silent that remains is oppressive and heavy enough to suffocate Donghae in his seat. Not even when they finally reach home and Donghae is following Hyukjae into the bedroom does the tension elevate.

Donghae sits on the edge of the bed, similar to how he was before they had off to Club Fantasia but the dour deposition that overtakes the room right now is the complete opposite of the start of that evening and the anxiety of coming to face with Hyukjae’s fury plays fast and loose with his stomach. He feels the sickening twist that makes him nauseated at the thought facing Hyukjae’s disappointment.   

Hyukjae drops into the armchair close to the bed, his expression unreadable as he faces Donghae. “Explain to me what happened there,” Hyukjae finally says, loosening off his tie and settling back into the seat.

And just like that all of Donghae’s resistant crumble, folding like a house of cards the instance Hyukjae’s attention is on him. He stumbles on what he should say, that jealousy got the better of him, that’s he petty and _wrong_ but the words doesn’t find it away out of his mouth.

“Donghae, don’t make me ask again,” Hyukjae says and Donghae flinches at the harshness of his tone.

“I didn’t like the way he looks at you,” Donghae says slowly, lower lip stretching out in a sulky pout.

Hyukjae quirks up an eyebrow. “Like what?”

“Like you’re meat and he’s hungry,” Donghae fumes, clasping his hands tightly together at the thought of Ryung and Hyukjae anywhere together.

Hyukjae maintains his line of sight with Donghae a few tense second before the corner of his lips start to turn upward into a teasing smile. “Is that all?”

“No!” he huffs. “He shouldn’t look at you like that when you’re—” he abruptly draws to a stop.

“When I’m what?” Hyukjae tilts his head curiously as though he doesn’t what Donghae was about to say anyway.

“When you’re mine,” he says quietly and then finishes it with an annoyed, “and he wanted you to tie him up! Seriously, I can’t believe he even suggest such a thing.”

Hyukjae holds his hand over his mouth and his shoulder tarts to tremble. Donghae thinks belatedly, that he’d messed up and Hyukjae must be mad at the claim Donghae had thrown at him but Hyukjae cracks up, barely able to contain his laughter. “Oh is that the real reason you bit him then?”

“N—no,” Donghae insists and at Hyukjae’s unconvinced raised brow, he acquiesces, “okay, maybe but only because you never told me you were into kinbaku!”

“If you wanted me to tie you up so badly you could have ask, you didn’t have to fight someone for it,” Hyukjae tells him, lips twitching in amusement because he’s terrible and Donghae must be sick to crave for such a deprived thing from such a man.  

Donghae flushes, heat swarm up to his cheeks and images of rope and bound hands and feet starts to plague him and threaten to set him aflame. He snaps himself out of it, with much reluctant, to pay turn his attention back at the situation at hand and looks at Hyukjae hopefully.  “So you’re not mad at me then?”

Hyukjae sobers up now, the creased on his brow drawn tight and grim. “I am,” he says carefully, and Donghae winces, wishing he hadn’t brought it up in the first place. “I’m going to have to send an apology to Chungho and Tiffany for the ruckus you caused but I think Chungho was more amused by your action than taken any serious offense about it yet that doesn’t mean you’re out of the clear. What I’m mad about is that you broke your words to me and I can’t have that.”

Donghae bites his lower lip, chewing on it in thought. “I’m sorry.”  

“You spoke up even though I strictly told you not to,” Hyukjae explains further. “Donghae, you _disobeyed_ me.” The way he says those word it sounds like Donghae had betrayed him.

“I know,” Donghae mumbles, guilt coiling tight in the pit of his stomach. “I just didn’t think.”

“You never do,” Hyukjae says, taking a slouching stance in his seat as he lets out a heavy sigh and this unrefined sight is something people will rarely see, except Donghae who has the privilege of it and Donghae has a lot of privilege when it comes to Hyukjae.

Hyukjae lets him get away with everything and nothing at all. He never ask Donghae anything that Donghae can’t or won’t give him and puts his full trust in Donghae to keep his words, so for Donghae to betrayed it, it is such a disappointment.  He doesn’t ever want to put that sort of expression on Hyukjae’s face but he did and that’s the worst thing that came out of this entire fiasco. 

Donghae swallows. “I’m sorry,” he says again, eyes downcast. He is afraid to face Hyukjae, to see that dissatisfied look that he now wear because of Donghae.

He abruptly hears the shuffle of feet, the sound of Hyukjae’s getting up and making his way toward Donghae but he dares not to look up, not even to move from his spot.

When Hyukjae is right in front of him and Donghae can see Hyukjae’s feet, Hyukjae cups Donghae’s chin and tilts it upward to face him.  “I know,” he says quietly, his touch is gentle but he’s looking at Donghae with such intensity that Donghae can’t even pull away, “but I can’t have defy me like that again.”

Donghae’s eyes go wide, knowing exact meaning behind those words. “But I—“

“This isn’t a debate,” Hyukjae says decisively. “I ask you for one thing and one thing only, and you broke it. Now you have to pay the consequence of your action. Tomorrow your punishment will begin.”

Donghae lets out a helpless whimper.   

 

\---

 

Punishment. To cause untold pain and suffering to someone as a mean to teach a lesson. Usually pertain to physical torment but that’s not always the case and some methods are far more brutal than others.

It’s not a foreign concept to Donghae, a paddle to his butt cheeks and a flogger to his back at the hand of his former dom. Donghae learns the hard way what disobedience entail but he just never thought that Hyukjae was even capable of such outright cruelty.

It’s heartless is what it is.

“Hyukjae!” he yells, puffing his chest out in anger after no longer can he be content with the silent that eclipsed the sunroom. He makes a grab for Hyukjae’s book but Hyukjae spares him a scolding look over the top of his book that has Donghae stops dead in his track, reeling back from it. 

“Argh, just stop reading and pay attention to me to me already,” he whines, diverting his hand instead to tugs at the sleeve of Hyukjae’s shirt, only to have Hyukjae responds with a rebuking, “Behave,” before turning back to his book once more.

Donghae’s lips pinch up in a sulky pout as he drop his hands back down to his lap and his gaze drifts off to the side of room. “Hyukjae, I promise I won’t do it again, so please forgive me already,” he says mournfully, sending a quick and furtive glance back at Hyukjae to check at any he had managed reaction out of Hyukjae but he remains unperturbed beside Donghae in the loveseat, completely engrossed in his book.

Donghae never been more jealous of a book than right now.

“Don’t ignore me,” he mutters, his voice dropping to a quiet shudder and in that moment he feels a hand on his head and he looks up to see Hyukjae’s giving him a comforting pat before withdrawing it, as if it’s a consolation prize for Donghae not being Hyukjae’s number one priority right now but it’s not enough. It’s never enough when it comes to Hyukjae for Donghae.

This is hell. A perfect punishment made personally for him.

Right now Donghae exists but in the fringes of Hyukjae’s mind, in a stage of total transparency where he’s so insignificant in Hyukjae’s eyes that he can barely spare Donghae a drop of his attention and that’s something Donghae can’t let happen.

Donghae drops his gaze down to his lap, his hands twisting at the hem of his shirt. He knows what Hyukjae wants.  He knows exactly what he has to do but the thought of doing it makes him want to squirm in his spot.

Let it not be said that Hyukjae isn’t kind but he’s also a total bastard.

“M—meow,” Donghae says, quiet and small against the relentless heat of mortification that surges within him like a raging firestorm.  

But Hyukjae only proceeds to turn the next page of his book and staunchly remains undisturbed, completely unruffled by the storm currently running amok in Donghae’s chest, his heart racing a mile a minute.

Cruel and heartless in a way that always leaves Donghae’s defenseless, have him stumbling to regain equilibrium every single time Hyukjae unsettle him. And Donghae is drag along at merciless Hyukjae’s pace, and knowingly play right into Hyukjae’s hand.

_“Today forget about being Donghae the human because you will be Donghae my cat.”_

Donghae lifts his head up and opens his mouth to meet the roaring sound in chest. “Me-ow,” he says loudly, strumming up every bit of courage that he doesn’t even know he has. His face growing hot by the second and the raw edge of his fray nerves tinge with embarrassment.

“Hmm?” Hyukjae says curiously, putting book down on a nearby table to finally look at him and giving his undivided attention. “Oh, do you want something, Donghae?” His face is blank and inquiring but his eyes betray the amusement buried within them.

Donghae sits up, leaning closer to Hyukjae. “Meow,” he says, growing bolder by the second that his earlier shame is being swallow up by happiness of having Hyukjae’s attention falling back to him again.

Hyukjae reaches one hand out to cups his chin and tiles it upward. “Have I been neglecting to you?” he asks, thumb brushing the side of Donghae’s cheek; his touch, a brand against Donghae’s skin.

Donghae mews again, leaning into Hyukjae’s hand insistently but Hyukjae suddenly draws his hand back. He nearly cry out at the loss of contact only to have Hyukjae grabs his wrist and drags him right into Hyukjae’s lap.

“Sorry,” Hyukjae says, leaning in and brushes an apologetic kiss against his forehead. “I’ll be better next time.”

Donghae lets out of a huff of disbelief and Hyukjae laughs. “Okay maybe not so much,” he says, eyes twinkling maddenly. “I can’t help teasing you when you make it so easy.”

Donghae tentatively licks at Hyukjae’s cheek as a respond and Hyukjae hums pleasingly underneath him. He, then, rests his head against the crooked of Hyukjae’s shoulder, basking in Hyukjae’s complete attention and getting off on it like the worst kind of addict—the kind that are fully aware of their action but commit to it anyway because the ecstasy of that one moment is worth a lifetime of misery. 

Hyukjae’s hand reaches back to his nape, fingers teasing at the sensitive flesh there that easily gives away to Hyukjae’s touch and a wave of pleasure through reverberates through him.

Donghae most definitely does not purr. That would be impossible and embarrassing but the sound Hyukjae manages to draw out of him is absolutely indecent, so animalistic and stripped down to its basest instinct that his entire body feels like an exposed nerve that wherever Hyukjae touch, he burns with an all-consuming desire.  

“Aren’t you the sweetest thing,” Hyukjae murmurs, low and husky against his ears, with a heat that threatens to boil over and oh how Donghae wishes to be burn by it.

But even as he cuddles up to Hyukjae and has the very thing he been craving for, Donghae can’t help casts a shifty glance to the side of Hyukjae where there’s glass of water on the table beside the book. Without any hesitation, Donghae reaches a hand out to knock the glass over, spilling the water all over Hyukjae’s prized first edition book.

The book is now a soaking wet mess just like Donghae had originally hope.

Hyukjae’s hand stop playing at his hair and he pushes Donghae away to gaze upon the victorious grin on Donghae’s face. “I see you still haven’t completely learn your lesson,” he says, an eyebrow raises and his lips thinning out in an unimpressed line.

“Meow,” Donghae says cheekily, and it’s said with such defiant and impudence that Hyukjae starts to laugh as his game begins to reverse around him. Even the most trained pet will bite at their master’s hand because in the end they are still animals and of course Donghae won’t be so easily tamed like that—but that’s why Hyukjae adores him anyway.

“Since it seems like you can’t control your limbs should I tie you up then?” Hyukjae muses.

Donghae gives a violent shudder. “Oh,” he breathes.

“But you would like that very much won’t you?” Hyukjae says mirthfully, because he is wicked, wicked man and Donghae is weak.

“Please don’t tease me,” he mumbles, breaking character and pressing up against Hyukjae like wanton addict.  

Hyukjae laughs again and the sound rings in Donghae’s ears; he happily tucks that sound into the deepest recess of his heart along with everything else that accumulated these past months that he spent with Hyukjae as though every moment is precious as the days count down and the contract he has with Hyukjae starts to expire.

Three hundred ninety-six days to go till this all end.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> donghae's relationship with hyukjae is uh complicated. there's multitude of layers to it, on one hand donghae wants to obey hyukjae and make him proud but on the other hand he doesn't want to bend all the way and completely surrender to hyukjae and that's why he's such a 'difficult' case for other dom but hyukjae just ya know thinks donghae is much more fun this way, he likes that he has to push donghae a lil to get him to bend but he doesn't want to completely break donghae either. so yea it's a giant work in process as they try to figure out their relationship and find the boundary but there's the looming deadline where their contract expire that donghae has to think about which make it all the more difficult lolol. anyway, hyukjae is very soft with donghae but he's total hardass and is entirely WICKED, maybe too wicked lolol. bc he doesn't think pain is the right kind of punishment for donghae but something that makes donghae embarrassed and unsettled him would be better off for donghae and him. competley painless but still makes donghae uncomfortable and regretful :P. hahaa, like i said before he's a wicked person, able to read the crowd and understand what makes ppl tick and he knows where to hit donghae's weak spot. a lot of is bc hyukjae is older and has a load of experienceand been around the block for much longer than donghae so yea. i guess that's why he works so well with donghae but donghae doesn't know exactly what makes hyukjae's tick yet and that's the challenge to dig into hyukjae and sees what he's made of bc there's still a lot about hyukjae doesn't doesn't know about and hopefully with 300 something days left donghae will figure it out. anyway, THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING<3333\. this entire 'verse is weird and may not be anyone thing but ya thanks anyway!!!!


End file.
